What is interesting is that you are not currently hamstrung at all in finding real banks with real dividend yields.  After all, what if the government delays its decision?  We recently ran a feature showing the highest yielding banks of all regions and all segments which had a 3.0% yield or higher, a market cap of $1 billion, and then which had earnings power to assure that these steady payout can continue.  If we carve these out by region from our screen of more than fifteen winners, these are five of the top payers by region are M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH), and Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK).

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $87.58 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $2.80/year generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $17.60 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $7.7 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $1.00 per year generates a yield of 5.6%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) operates as Frost Bank and as of a year ago it had 110 financial centers in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio regions of Texas.

• Share price of $57.60 compares to 52-week range of $50.04 to $62.59
• Market Cap is $3.5 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $3.52 EPS and $886.4 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.1%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and was raised throughout the recession.

Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH) was surprising to see considering the Hawaiian economy of the recession. It is the holding company for Bank of Hawaii and as of a year ago it operated 71 Hawaii branch locations and 12 branches in the Pacific Islands.

• Share price of $46.60 compares to 52-week range of $42.59 to $54.10
• Market Cap is $2.25 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $2.96 EPS and $585.56 million in revenues
• Dividend of $1.80/year generates a yield of 3.8%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and raised during 2008

Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK) is the bank holding company for Trustmark National Bank in Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas and as of a year ago it operated 140 full-service branches and 17 limited-service branches.

• Share price of $22.27 compares to 52-week range of $18.83 to $26.88
• Market Cap is $1.42 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.56 EPS and $511.21 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.92/year generates a yield of about 4.0%
• Dividend history during recession was stable and has been static since 2007

You can bookmark our site for the DAILY DIVIDEND AT 11:00 AM EST each day, although it technically at 11:01 AM EST.

JON C. OGG

We wanted to take a look at “all those other banks” out there that might have avoided the trouble that the big money center banks got into.  The screen pointed to M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB), Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY), New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB), Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK), People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT), First Niagara Financial Group (NASDAQ: FNFG), Astoria Financial Corporation (NYSE: AF), Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: NWBI), Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI), FirstMerit Corporation (NASDAQ: FMER), Park National Corp. (NYSE: PRK), Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK), Hancock Holding Co. (NASDAQ: HBHC), F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) and Bank of Hawaii Corporation (NYSE: BOH).  In Canada there is Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), The Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS), Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM).It turns out that there are still many banks around the country that do pay higher dividends at above-market yields.

Our screen boiled down to a simple process.  We took a 3.0% Yield hurdle because that is what was implied as a future yield by JPMorgan this week if you use forward earning projections.  To avoid the micro-regional risks and to avoid the “so small no one cares if they fail” we also made a market cap hurdle of $1.0 billion.  After this we took a look at forward earnings expectations and also looked in the past to see what happened to their common stock dividends during the Great Recession when bank failure risks were systematic.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) is based in Buffalo, NY and is the holding company for M&T Bank.  As of a year ago it had 793 banking offices in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as a branch in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company is in the process of acquiring another.

• Share price of $89.85 compares to 52-week range of $72.03 to $96.15
• Market Cap is $10.76 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $6.12 EPS and $3.77 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.70/quarter generates a yield of 3.2%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY) is the bank holding company for Valley National Bank and it had 197 full-service banking branches a year ago located throughout New Jersey and New York.

• Share price of $13.51 compares to 52-week range of $12.33 to $16.19
• Market Cap is $2.2 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.84 EPS and $550.98 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.18/quarter generates a yield of about 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was not effectively interrupted at all and it continued to pay a 5% stock dividend.

New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYB) is the bank holding company for York Community Bank and New York Commercial Bank and as of a year ago it had 241 community bank branches and 35 commercial bank branches throughout New York.

• Share price of $18.92 compares to 52-week range of $14.40 to $19.33
• Market Cap is $8.24 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $1.33 EPS and $1.25 billion in revenues
• Dividend of $0.25/quarter generates a yield of 5.4%
• Dividend history during recession was unchanged at $0.25 per quarter since 2004.

Hudson City Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCBK) is the bank holding company for Hudson City Savings Bank and as of a year ago it had 95 branches located in 17 counties throughout the State of New Jersey.

• Share price of $11.40 compares to 52-week range of $10.80 to $14.75
• Market Cap is $5.6 billion
• Thomson Reuters sees 2011 at $0.77 EPS and $966.6 million in revenues
• Dividend of $0.15/quarter generates a yield of 5.3%
• Dividend history during recession was actually raised during 2009 when others were eliminating or cutting the dividend.  The dividend has been this rate since mid-2009.

We have compiled deal details, use of funds, the gross amounts of each offering, a list of underwriters, and share price reactions for each deal.

ChinaCast Education Corporation (NASDAQ: CAST) priced a public secondary offering of 5,930,000 shares of common stock at $6.85 per share.  The net proceeds from this offering are earmarked for working capital, future acquisitions and general corporate purposes.  Shares are actually up 2% at $7.45 on the pricing after a $7.29 close yesterday.  This was under a shelf filing from September and net proceeds should be be approximately $38.5 million. Roth Capital Partners is the sole book-runner and it has an option to purchase up to an additional 889,500 shares to cover over-allotments.

Regency Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ: RGNC) boosted its offering.  The company priced “an upsized public offering” of 10,500,000 common units (LP interests) at $19.12 per common unit.  This will be close to $200 million in gross proceeds and the company intends to use the proceeds to repay outstanding debt under its revolving credit facility.  UBS, BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo Securities are joint book-running managers for the offering.  Regency granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,575,000 common units. Regency  The offering is scheduled to close on December 7, 2009.  Regency shares are down close to 5% at $18.97 after a $19.96 close and the entire day’s trading volume has already been hit even before the opening bell at 9:30 AM.

SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD) priced its previously announced public secondary offering of 24,000,000 shares of common stock at $8.85 per share.  Of the offering, 2 million shares are being sold by its Chairman Tom Ward. Funds from this offering will be used to fund a portion of the purchase price of its previously announced acquisition of oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin region from Forest Oil Corporation, or they will be for general corporate purposes if the deal is not closed. Barclays, BofA Merrill Lynch, and RBC Capital Markets are the joint book-running managers and the company granted the underwriters of the offering a 30-day option to purchase up to 3,600,000 additional shares of common stock. Shares are now up 2% at $9.17 after a $8.99 close yesterday and after shares had lost more than 5% in the last three trading sessions.

Trustmark Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMK) priced its public secondary offering of 5,405,406 shares of common stock at $18.50 per share. The gross proceeds are roughly $100 million, but this is being used to get Uncle Sam out of the bank.   Trustmark said that it intends to notify the U.S. Treasury of its intent to redeem all 215,000 shares of its outstanding Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock.  UBS and J.P. Morgan are the joint book-running managers, while Keefe Bruyette & Woods and Sandler O’Neill & Partners are co-managers for the offering; Trustmark has also granted the underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase up to 810,810 additional shares of common stock.  Trustmark shares are up 1% at $19.20 after a $19.00 close yesterday.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI) was already down yesterday after it filed to sell up to 12.5 million shares on Monday evening.  That $300+ million offering is expected to price late today or tonight, and this will add about 7% of added shares to the free float of the stock. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup were listed as the joint book-runners.  Shares were off yesterday and are up 0.3% at $27.12 right at the open.

You can join our open email distribution list to receive daily emails with analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, market rumors, merger activity, IPOs and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and guru activity and more.

JON C. OGG
DECEMBER 2, 2009

• Asset Acceptance Capital (NASDAQ: AACC) Raised to Market Perform at KBW.
• City National (NYSE: CYN) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
• L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
• LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) Started as Buy at KeyBanc.
• Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
• 3PAR (NYSE: PAR) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
• Terremark Worldwide (NASDAQ: TRMK) Started as Buy at Stanford.
• Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.

Jon C. Ogg
December 18, 2008

• AIG (AIG) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
• Anaren (ANEN) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Avon Products (AVP) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
• CarMax (KMX) Cut to Market Perform at Raymond James.
• Citi Trends (CTRN) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Edwards Lifesciences (EW) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• Femsa (FMX) Cut to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.
• Lamar Advertising (LAMR) Started as Sell at Citigroup.
• Trustmark (TRMK) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
• VMware (VMW) Started as Underperform at Bernstein.

Jon C. Ogg
August 7, 2008